Monday, February 01, 2010

Musical Musings

I have a thing for music. I always have. I love beautiful melodies and enriching orchestrations.

I have a thing for words. I always have. I love beautiful phrases and enriching quotations.

Take those two things about me, and that will tell you why the hymns are so important to me. Beautiful melodies. Inspiring words. Poetic statements of truth. I love singing a hymn and getting revelations not only through the melodic sensations happening, but also from gaining new insight to gospel principles. I love hearing words issue from my mouth that describe the exact feeling I have wanted to express to my Father in Heaven that have been verbally eluding me.

That happened a few times for me today. Indulge me a moment to share. [I will hide this personal and pictureless display of emotion under a post with pictures later today :)]

Our opening hymn in Sacrament meeting was 'Lord, I Would Follow Thee'. This has ALWAYS been a favorite of mine. I love how it is a personal dialogue with our Savior. I love that as we sing it, we promise to love others more fully. I love that I get to sing out my testimony that I know He loves me while also listing ways to improve myself. Today a line, that has touched me a number of times before now, hit me again because it pertained to some silly feelings and judgements I had been making about a few women in the ward. I won't go into detail just in case by some random stroke of e-coincidence they find this.

"In the quiet heart is hidden sorrow that the eye can't see."

Now, the women I am referring to have actually not been very quiet. They have been quite vocal. Obnoxiously and offensively so. Lately, I have had a hard time keeping my mind out of that judgement place and labelling them with horrible things like 'Pest', 'Selfish', or 'Oblivious'. As I sung that beautiful truth of humanity, however, I knew that while these particular women might be very vocal about certain complaints, they were also being very quiet about some hidden sorrows that my eye can't see. The Spirit bore witness to me in that moment, quite powerfully, that those women did not need or deserve my judegement- but rather they need and deserve my love and my prayers (and maybe one of my cinnamon rolls?- we'll see. . .).

The second moment came in the Sacrament hymn, 'O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown'. One of my favorites. The music is an etude by Bach which is why it is not very popular. It is LOVELY, but it is probably one of the most challenging hymns in the Hymnal to play or to sing. Anyway- it is hymn 197 and I think everyone should go look it up right this instant and read the whole thing like it is scripture (because it is- President Hinckley said so!). The words are breathtakingly beautiful and I always find myself pondering on them for hours after singing it. Here are some of my favorite lines.

No creature is so lowly, No sinner so depraved, But feels thy presence holy And thru thy love is saved.

Thy mercy is extended To ev’ry time and land. No more can Satan harm us, Tho long the fight may be, Nor fear of death alarm us; We live, O Lord, thru thee.

The last moment of musical musing I will share came while I was sitting in Singing Time in Primary. It is actually something that happens often, but gets me teary every single time. When all those children (and there are a lot in our ward) sing together in unison 'I Am A Child Of God', I just melt. I can't help it. It is beautiful. It is so true! They sing it with such confidence and conviction. President Hinckley once said that our church will always be one generation away from apostasy. Friends, know now that this next generation is strong, stable, and full of the testimony of Christ. They know. I love getting to see and hear just how much they know.

I am grateful for the hymns of the Church, and I am grateful for the emphasis that has always been placed on them by the prophets and other leaders of the Church. I truly believe that there is inspiration lying in those words and melodies that cannot be tapped in any other way.

3 comments:

i am a words person and a music person, so i absoutely love everything you shared here!

hymns are so powerful to me - most of my most pivotal testimony-moments came about through song.

and guess what - i weep nearly every time i hear children singing almost ANY primary song! it is so moving to me to hear these little children expounding the most powerful truths of eternity through music! i love it.

love this! i totally get revelation in the form of words of hymns sometimes. While making breakfast the other day "With God Nothing is impossible" came into my mind. My favorite hymns are "Come Unto Him" and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and I don't think I can ever forgive them for leaving it out of the new hymnbook...it had to be a typo right? Next edition it will be back?

Why I Blog

"You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experience."